Dispatches from the Island

Monday, September 8, 2014

I actually googled idioms. It's one of those things that you know until someone asks you and then you can't think of a single one. And "keep and eye out" was the first one I came across and I just couldn't get past the idea.

Day 26: An animal that doesn't exist.

It's always tentacles. They fascinate me and creep me out at the same time. I like leaving the exact details of this monster to our imagination Like where the claws and the tentacles and eyes come together is anybody's guess. I mean why are his eyes so low?

Day 27: An old person (doing kung-fu)

So I drew the old guy on top. But then I had the idea of kung-fu with a walker. So I used the model of a gymnast on a pommel horse and drew this guy kickin' ass.

Day 28: An alien species that looks bent on earths destruction, but is actually quite peaceful.

This is basically a rip off of Kang and Kodos. I wanted my guy to also be green, tentacled and drooling as well. I don't know where he got such humongous flowers.

Day 29: A monument of the world coming to life and wreaking havoc on the nearest major capital city.

Another two-fer. I had some time on my hands and after coming up with one idea I immediately had the other. At first I thought of Mt. Rushmore attacking a city. I even wanted it picking up people and eating them Rampage style but I think the heads would be too big to notice people if they were done to scale. (This is just a guess I'm not really sure how bit Mt. Rushmore is. I guess if I used North by Northwest as my source people are big enough.

Been awhile since I've seen it and I wasn't sure how committed they were to accuracy of scale.

I mean it's a mountain isn't it? It's in it's name? Then I found this.

So I guess I was right. The next dilemma with Mt. Rushmore is which capital city should it attack? And what constitutes "major." I ended up making the executive decision of attacking his home state capital of Pierre.

Now Sydney opera house was pretty obvious as far as the city was concerned and I like the idea of shells on his back. He reminded me of a old "dinosaur" toy I had as a kid. So I went googling to find a picture of it to use as a model and sure enough I'm not the only one who remembers these.

Day 30: A visual representation of your imagination.

I felt like leaving this one in black and white. And I wanted to make my head expressionless and black like a Greek statue. I also enjoy the juxtaposition of a small King Kong on a giant woman. Whenever I go back and look at this picture I think to myself "yeah it's something like that."

Friday, September 5, 2014

Ok I don't know if I fixed the comments thing and no one cares to leave comments (I know it's only a few of you) or if it's still not working but either way I'm moving on.

Day 20: A Robot (Any size, for any purpose)

This basically started with the idea of the robot holding those bamboo toast tongs. I just thought it was a cute idea, I mean he's a robot what's he afraid of getting burned. (Okay maybe electrocuted.)

Day 21: Your Most Influential Mentor (As a Jedi Master)
My acting teacher Milton Katselas. As a bonus I'm including my first attempt. In the end I thought simplicity would be a better route. (That and "make him more like Yoda.")

22. A battle suit designed for doing something completely mundane

This was just a target of the day. I had a friend coming to visit so I had to clean the toilets. The main selling feature for me is the face guard and the old timey catcher's pads for cushion.

23. Your zodiac sign as a great warrior or wizard.

I thought making Taurus a warrior would be the obvious choice so I went wizard. Yeah the pants are silly. But this is where I started playing around with a glowing effect in Sketch Club. I wish I thought of it when I was drawing the light sabers.

24. A pirate (space, sea, desert, etc.)

Still playing with the glowing effect. It's just a air brush effect in a bright color. Kinda dig it.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

I broke this up into multiple posts even though I'm doing this all the same day.

Day 14: A Plant (Man eating)

I don't if the guy is bleeding or he's just covered in pollen which sometimes happens when you have a run in with a plant. But the redness around was necessary to make it look like he was really inside. I really love the app Sketch Club and the way it allows you to manipulate your drawing and add textures.

Day 15: A Hover vehicle

Again with the Self Portrait. My favorite part of this is the dust that gets dispersed by this machine which basically stole from Pig Pen from the Peanuts comic strip.

Day 16: A Paladin (Representing any religion except Christianity)

The functionality of the trunk on the helmet is clearly in question but that and the curly boots made me really fall in love with this picture.

Day 17: A devil / demon (without lifting your pen)

Ok so I didn't technically use a pen but I didn't lift my stylus. I loved going through these on Instagram because they all looked like they belonged in a demon themed book of mazes.

Day 18: A Tank

Don't have much to say here. It just didn't look tough enough till I put it over the black background.

Day 19: A President (As a zombie)

Ok. This is the picture that unseated The Paladin as my favorite picture of this challenge so far. He's just really into that horse head (or donkey head).

(Before we get into the drawings I just wanted to add a technical note that I believe I fixed the comment moderation so you should be able to leave comments should you like.)

Day 10 : Something Evolving.

So I new I wanted to do an man/ape with baby arms essentially. And I used the pictures of the Tarzan animated movie as a model for the split toes. I wasn't sure about the genitals but he clearly needed something in the middle and i wasn't about to draw him in a pair of dolphin shorts. (Not the brand, actually made of dolphin.) But my favorite part of this picture is his right baby arm is just "hangin' out" resting on his thigh like "see, I'm cool." Which is why this picture makes me smile.

Day 11: Your favorite food (As a gift from the gods)

Picking a favorite food is impossible. But this week I found myself with a hankering for Mac & Cheese. It was the week of the hurricane threat and I was in the supermarket looking for food items that had a long shelf life. I really like the idea that it's just sitting in his hand. And really if these are the hands of a god then these noodles must be HUGE!

Day 12: A Super Hero

This gave me an idea of trying to do a 30 Day Drawing Challenge which regardless of category it has to be some kind of a self portrait. (Maybe it's the actor in me. )

Day 13: A Super Villain

Man I threw everything at this guy. Robot hand, belly eye, and magic double headed pitchfork. I started with the super hero and started modifying it into another dude.

Sunday, August 10, 2014

Day 7: A historical / modern icon you admire satirized using the reason you admire them most. (eg. Carl Sagan as a mad scientist)

This one was a tough one. The high concept was hard to figure out. Eventually I settled on Shakespeare as a coffee shop screenwriter.

Day 8: Close eyes. Draw a Batman

This was a blast. I kept doing it over and over. I discovered that with Sketch Club wasn't the best choice for this challenge because whenever my stylus would linger too long it would change the color I was drawing in to the white of the blank page. So I switched to Sketch Time (bottom two) of course this time I accidentally increased the size of my line when I got too close to the bottom of the screen.

9. A dinosaur, real or made up

"Made up" really gets your imagination going. So I thought, "what if ankylosaurus had his head on the opposite side of his body, with eyes on his 'club' end?" And this is how it turned out.

Saturday, August 2, 2014

This pic felt very "Sumo" so I added the rising sun and hair chopsticks.

Day 2: A Monster (Good)

And I liked the Roman Slug idea but I think I went overboard with the pink and purple tank and skirt to make him seem more "good." But I knew I had to give him clothes because I didn't want to give him a johnson.